Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

NOAH

R ed carpet events always took fucking forever to get ready for. Whenever we had one, Alana insisted that the whole of City Lights were together by ten a.m., showered and decent for the photo opportunities that came along with the prep.

Gemma and I had set an alarm, but when it went off, I wasn’t anywhere near ready to get up. I definitely wasn’t ready to leave her for the entire day, but Alana had hair and makeup people coming to the suite, as well as some designer that would be bringing Gemma options for dresses.

I groaned as the piercing shriek of the alarm echoed through the room. Releasing Gemma with one arm, I reached for the phone causing all the damn racket. She burrowed into me, chuckling when I let out a string of muttered curses.

“Is it really morning already?” she asked, yawning as she blinked her eyes open.

Last night, before we’d eventually gone to sleep, I’d drawn the curtains, and as a result, the room was still completely dark inside. There was a very faint glow coming from the other side of the blackout window treatments, but other than that, it still looked exactly the same to me as it had at two a.m.

I pressed a kiss to her forehead, gathering her back into my arms and closing my eyes as I held her against me. “Nah. Let’s go back to sleep.”

“Didn’t you say we needed to get an early start?”

“Yep, but that was before you kept me up half the night,” I joked lazily. “You can’t expect me to perform until some ungodly hour in the morning and then be up early so someone can make me pretty for tonight.”

She giggled. “Why not? Aren’t you supposed to be young, virile, and have enough stamina to perform repeatedly for days on end? Jeez, here I thought I was the old one.”

“You could’ve just told me I was already pretty,” I murmured, but as hard as I tried to keep a serious face, I couldn’t hide my grin anymore. “Good morning, gorgeous.”

“Good morning, handsome.” When I blinked my eyes open once more, she was smiling up at me, already appearing wide awake.

I wrinkled my nose at her. “How are you such a morning person?”

“It kind of feels like a part of you wants you to be a morning person too.” She wriggled against me, brushing her upper thigh over an erection I hadn’t even realized I had.

A soft moan escaped me and I was suddenly wide awake myself, hot, bothered, and ready to get the day off to a good start. Sliding my hand into her hair, I brought her head closer to mine and spoke against her lips.

“Well, if I get to wake up to you, maybe you can convince me to become a morning person.” As I sealed my lips over hers, my fucking phone started blaring again, telling me that our five-minute snooze time had expired. “I’m going to kill whoever put a clock in a phone.”

Gemma laughed softly. Sighing, she rolled away from me. “I’m pretty sure you’d have to go back in time to do it. It’s probably a good thing it went off, though. We don’t want to get caught with our pants literally down and you said there was a team coming for me.”

“Not a problem,” I said. “We’re not wearing any pants, so they can’t catch us with them down. Checkmate.”

“I think not wearing any is worse,” she teased, sitting up and stretching her arms out above her head. “Gosh, these curtains are amazing. They don’t let in any light at all. If it wasn’t for whoever put a clock in a phone, we’d probably have slept until they showed up.”

“I would’ve been good with that.” I finally sat up too, just about to ask her if she’d like to grab a shower with me when my phone started ringing. “Holy shit. I just can’t catch a fucking break today, can I?” Grabbing the device off the nightstand, I scowled into the darkness of the room as I took Lewis’s call. “I hate you right now.”

He chuckled. “No doubt, but your dick can hate me as much as it wants later. Doesn’t change the fact that you’re due in my suite in ten minutes. Wardrobe is already here and the press has been setting up down the hall for our pre-interviews for at least an hour.”

“Fuck.”

“Something you won’t be doing this morning,” he said laughingly. “Sorry, bro. Duty calls. Get your ass out of that bed, grab a shower, and get up here.”

“It’s still so early,” I complained, but he wasn’t having it.

“If you wanted more time, you should’ve set an alarm.”

“I did.”

“For what, the very last minute?”

I sighed. “We were up pretty late. I figured an extra hour of sleep wouldn’t hurt.”

“Not my fault,” he said in a sing-song voice. “Now get your butt in a shower. You’re going to be late.”

With that, he hung up and I turned to find Gemma watching me with an amused expression. Her head cocked when my gaze met hers. “Lewis?”

“Yep. Apparently, I need to get going.” I leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. Then I tore myself away and raced through a shower.

By the time I was out and dressed, Gemma had opened the curtains to let some sunshine in and had started straightening up the room. She had the hotel robe wrapped around her again and a steaming cup of coffee in her hand, a soft smile on her lips.

She watched me slide my watch onto my wrist. “For the record, I do think you’re pretty enough already.”

I laughed. “Thanks, but it’s too late now. The asshole already knows I’m awake and he’ll break down our door if I’m not there soon.”

“The asshole is trying to save you from our hormones. I’d say that makes him a pretty good friend instead of an asshole.”

I shrugged and winked before I strode over and kissed her hard, hating that we had to go our separate ways. “I’ll be sure to tell him you said so after I clock him for what he interrupted.”

She smiled against my lips, hooking an arm around the back of my neck. “Go be a superstar, baby. I’ll be here when you get back and we can always pick up where we left off later.”

I sighed. “I’ll be back here as soon as I can, okay? If nothing else, at least to pick you up for the event, but I’m hoping we’ll be done earlier and I’ll get to be here to help you into your dress.”

“Into it?”

“Or out of it. Whatever you prefer.” I lowered my forehead to hers, breathing her in before I knew I had to leave or risk not leaving at all. “The beauty team will be here soon, okay? They should have everything you need, but if there’s something you want that they don’t have, just let them know and they’ll get it for you. I’ll see you this afternoon.”

“See you this afternoon.” She watched me grab my wallet and phone, then walked me to the door and waved goodbye as I took off down the hall.

When she and I would ever get to spend a proper amount of time together without one or both of us having to rush off somewhere, I didn’t know. I desperately wanted that with her, though. Like maybe a week on a tropical island somewhere with no cell service.

Yeah, that would be awesome.

As I joined the guys in Lewis’s suite, I dropped into the chair marked with my name and nodded at the stylists who swarmed me. Pulling out my phone, I Googled remote island getaways. There were a few that looked promising. I would’ve just booked a trip as a surprise, but as I’d seen yesterday, Gemma was a professional with a pretty hectic schedule of her own.

It would make surprising her pretty damn tough.

“Everything okay, bro?” Jack asked quietly from my left side. He didn’t turn his head to look at me since they were busy with his hair, but he glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “You don’t look as happy as you should this morning.”

“Just not enough time,” I replied, shaking my head and earning myself a light smack on the shoulder from my own stylist. I sighed. “Sorry, Marni.”

Jack chuckled. “When do we ever have enough time for ourselves? The answer is never, but we’re really lucky not to have time. I’m sure Gemma understands.”

“She does. This is a me problem,” I said. “I just don’t know if or when we’ll ever get to just spend time together, you know? One or both of us always seems to have to rush off.”

“That’s why you make the best of the time you do have,” Marni said wisely. “Take it from me, boys. No one ever has enough time to do everything they want to do, when they want to do it. Time is precious. You should never waste it.”

“Fair enough,” Jack said, glancing at his stylist in the reflection of the mirror in front of him when she took a step back. “Am I done?”

“You are.”

He got up, nodding at me before he moved onto wardrobe. “I’ll see you at the interviews.”

“See you,” I said, waiting impatiently for Marni to finish with my hair before I grabbed the casual morning suit they wanted me in for this and changed.

By the time I got to the cluster of rooms reserved for our pre-interviews today, Brandon, Jack, and Lewis were already each in one, and I strode into the last. A local news channel had sent some of their anchors to chat to us before the event, and I was hoping that the others had already answered most of their questions.

As a general rule, I liked to keep my personal life private. I was known for not divulging very much, but interviews and press were simply a part of my life. I couldn’t say nothing at all and I couldn’t not sit down with them.

If I could finish here fast today, however, I might be able to run upstairs for a quick brunch with Gemma before I had to come back to get ready for tonight. Unfortunately, the interviewers kept us busy well into the afternoon, seemingly having prepared never-ending lists of questions.

The final reporter had had me for almost an hour when she suddenly flashed me a conspiratory smile. “Let’s talk about the Christmas Festival, shall we?”

My heart drummed in my chest. “Yeah, uh, that was a great show. And for such a good cause. The boys and I had an amazing time.”

“It sure looked like it.” I didn’t like the glint in her eyes when she leaned forward, her gaze firm on mine. “There’s a picture making the rounds on social media. Our viewers will rake me over the coals if I don’t ask you about it.”

My stomach dropped. “A picture? I’ve seen quite a few pictures of that day making the rounds.”

“That’s true. It certainly was a successful day, but I’m referring to the picture of you with Hillary McBride.” As she said the name, she looked so damn proud of herself that, if I hadn’t known any better, I might’ve thought she’d just discovered a gold mine. “I’m sure you’ve seen it. It’s got you beaming at the camera with her kissing your cheek. You’re holding each other and I have to say, the two of you make a gorgeous couple.”

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I’d already known that the picture must’ve looked like something it wasn’t, but since it hadn’t come up yet, I hadn’t even thought of clarifying things online or speaking to Gemma about it. While I knew that it had been nothing, the interviewer sure didn’t seem to know it.

“All of the fans have been going crazy for you two online,” she continued, completely oblivious to the wave of nausea currently sweeping through me. “They’re positively gushing. Especially the local fans. Rumor has it Hillary also made a very generous donation on the day. You must be so proud of her, but of course, her family is known for their commitment to helping the community.”

They are?

“Honestly, I didn’t know that. I also didn’t know that anybody was gushing. She seems like a nice person and her donation certainly was generous, but?—”

The interviewer grinned at me as a buzzer went off from one of the other rooms. “Oh, that’s all the time we have with you today. Thank you, Noah. It’s always so easy to talk to you.”

She stood up, clicked her little recording device off, and slid it into her bag before she left.

Without me clarifying that Hillary had only been the winner of a contest and that there was nothing between us at all.

Shit. Fuck. Shit.

I was going to have to tell Gemma what had happened today or else I had a feeling this was all going to blow up right in my face. First thing when I see her later, I promised myself as I was ushered back to Lewis’s suite to change. As soon as I get a minute with her this afternoon, I have to tell her.

If I didn’t and she found out some other way, she’d probably think I’d been playing her all this time, and considering that I was working my way up to telling her that I loved her, I really, desperately didn’t want her to think that I’d been seeing other girls all along despite our promise to be exclusive.

And I absolutely didn’t want her to think I was interested in anyone else at all.

Or that I ever would be again.